Wednesday 20 April 2016


Cultures of Repair Past and Present

Goldsmiths, University of London


  I was lucky to get a ticket to this event, which consisted out of a morning of lectures and a workshop in darning by Tom of Holland in the afternoon.
We started of with a lecture, by Vivienne Richmond, about a book of samplers from the Whitelands College Collection now part of the University of Roehampton.  Whitelands was the first all-women teacher-training college which was established in 1841.  Its stated purpose: 'to produce a superior class of parochial Schoolmistresses'.  As part of their training, they had to make a sampler of several ways of darning linnens.  Swiss darning was used to reinforce fabric by embroidery.  The example in the photo is about 2.5cm by 2cm.  The stitches are minute.






This elaborate Swiss darning has never been found on antique textiles, so it probably was just an exercise in fine needlework.
  We also had a talk by Lizzie cannon, an artist.  She takes items that are damaged or decaying and by "repairing" or empathising the decay, creates art.